Reflecting On What I Learned From Illuminate Universe’s Event Planning, Marketing and Communications Virtual Experience

Has your boss ever put you in charge of planning a work party for everyone in the department, or are you trying to organize a campaign to raise awareness for a just cause but don’t even know where to start?

Organizing your own event can be a very daunting task, especially if you have never done it before. There are so many things to do, like finding venues, talking to vendors, and promoting your event all while making sure the event itself achieves its intended purpose. It can become very overwhelming.

As someone who used to struggle with organization and keeping track of everything I had to do, I was very excited to be able to take Illuminate Universe’s work-integrated learning experience on Event Planning, Marketing and Communications in partnership with Youth Empowering Parents(YEP), an organization that has even received a UN award in the past due to its innovative approach to teaching, and it absolutely did not disappoint.

Through the review of this journey, I was genuinely able to learn quite a lot during my time learning with Illuminate. Not only was I able to gain a detailed overview of the stages of event planning from start to finish but I was also able to acquire a lot of the key skills involved. One of those was marketing since reaching your target audience is usually one of the primary aspects of achieving your goal whether that would be gathering a certain amount of donations or demonstrating a new product. However, you may not always know how to attract your target audience and what to take into consideration when advertising. Hence, I was happy to note that the experience gives you an elaborate guideline for understanding your audience as well as ideas on how to promote the event to them. Not only that, but marketing is also a very sought-after skill nowadays which could benefit you if you ever decide to switch to a career in advertising and marketing.

 I also personally never realized the importance of communication in event planning until I took on this journey. When working with others, it is necessary to be a good leader to coordinate your team in executing a successful event. Both communication and leadership are essential skills in almost every field these days which is why it’s a huge bonus that they are part of the curriculum. Not only will this aid in your event planning but also in more managerial roles you might apply for in the future such as project manager. Thus, the content develops your capability as an event planner while synchronously improving your overall value as an employee in a multitude of different fields.

Reflecting on my learning through my writing has definitely been an interesting experience, having to critically evaluate the benefits I had gained as well as consider how to practically apply them. This was a step outside of my comfort zone as well, having never written a blog post before.

For those of you who are looking for positions as event planners or managers in the future, my advice for you is that it is okay to make mistakes along the way, and messing up an event is not the end of your journey. It’s how you can learn and grow in your career, trusting that you will be better and more experienced the next time. Rome was not built in a day so do not expect yourself to be perfect when you’re just starting out. You’ve got this! 

Remember that it is also absolutely normal to feel nervous when starting out. There’s a lot of pressure on you and it’s impossible not to be anxious about things not working out the way you planned. However, don’t let your thoughts get the better of you. Do your best and have backups for when things go wrong. You will be fine and the longer you stay in this field the more confident you will become in your abilities.